A Permaculture Design Course (PDC) is one of the best trainings for thinking in systems that I can think for the time invested. Thinking in systems, I am convinced, is an important societal building block towards a more sustainable future. Thinking in systems, or holistic thinking, helps restore a worldview where all parts are intricately interconnected and thus recognizes humans as being part of the whole, inseparable and totally dependant on nature. The disconnect we experience in modern society with our life-support systems has impaired our ability to link our actions with their consequences, or to relate our health with our environment. Living in predominantly human-made environments, makes us divorced from the sources of our own existence, unaware of some of the most basic survival skills such as gr﻿owing food or identifying unhealthy ecosystems. Because Permaculture design emphasizes on functions and more so on the functions that can arise from interrelations, it trains our brain to think in connections with an intricate spatial and temporal dimension. Thinking in how things are connected, of flows of energy and matter, of outputs and inputs, really helps those who take a PDC sow an ecological mind that is much needed in our planet today. In addition of changing what you think of, a PDC will change how you chose to think of things. Typically attracting people who are conscious and worried about the human-caused degradation of nature, a PDC presents itself as a magic journey to renovate one’s perception of reality. For me, taking a PDC was a transformation of my worldview, a bath of wonderment and a boost of positive energy. A PDC is an introduction to an array of possibilities that through careful and deliberate design turn problems into solutions. The conscious placing of elements, their intentional arrangement in space and their management over time so that beneficial interrelations and outcomes are permitted is truly the art of Permaculture design. This is very empowering for people taking a PDC, who through becoming designers, are metamorphosed into proactive stewards of their surroundings. The aspect of sharing the experience that a PDC represents along other likeminded students is priceless. Being simultaneously exposed to all that a PDC entails can create long lasting friendships and limitless opportunities for cooperation.

Marvelous people during the PDC 2014 in Mysore, India

After a PDC, I was not only more aware of ecological processes that enhanced my reverence for the land and had gained a positive outlook on humans’ role on earth by knowing the regenerative tools that exist out there, but I also had a new skill set ready to experiment and to be put into practice along with new friends. If you are thirsty for a recipe for a sustainable lifestyle, a Permaculture Design Course will surprise you with much, much more than that…

It’s great to see appropriate technology - a core part of permaculture - at work. It’s application is universal and, just like permaculture design, context dependent. A solar cooker needs lots of sun, a wind turbine, lots of wind; a microfinance system can work brilliantly to pull people out of poverty, and expensive solar panels can brighten up the homes of the rich world. Indeed, the use of permaculture principles is a cross-contextual guideline for identifying which technology is appropriate and which one is not in a given milieu and given time.

In the mountains around the town of Rimbik, four hours from Darjeeling, people use stream water to power small turbines which are used to charge their mobile phones. The water passes through an old byro casing, which focuses the pressure on a small motor attached to a simple cable running to the house. A great example of small scale energy systems producing tangible, welfare increasing results. Somewhat ironically, not far away, are numerous large-scale hydro-electric projects. Our good friend Kunnsang, a Tibetan Buddhist monk and keeper of Samten Monastery comments that since one of the larger plants nearby was built it hasn’t snowed at his monastery. It’s difficult to ascertain the cause and effect in this case, but he remains convinced. We look forward to partnering with Kunnsang for a PDC in Rimbik in April 2015

In Bodhgaya, a tenacious Brit, Lillian Sum, is hoping to use Ubuntu Blox to solve the plastic crises gripping the subcontinent. Designed by Harvey Lacey, a Texan inventor, Ubuntu Blox take used plastic rubbish, and squeeze it into functional building blocks. A people-centered, low cost solution to a massive problem in India and the world. The buildings designed using Ubuntu Blox are earthquake resistant, and once rendered are perfectly reasonable dwellings. A wonderful concept with far-reaching applications for the future - there is no shortage of plastic waste. This use of appropriate technology was highlight of the PDC in Bodhgaya last November.

Further south, in Mysore, on a recent Permaculture Design Course we were fortunate to visit the National Institute of Engineering, Centre for Renewable Energy & Sustainable Technologies (CREST). A brilliant place, illuminating some of the most simple and effective appropriate technology applications, such as the tippy-tap, to some of the more complex - a biodiesel generator (pictured left) using the seed of the pongamia, for example. The biodiesel is produced from the seed of this leguminous tree not otherwise utilised that grows abundantly in the area. The centre is flagged by a wind-turbine and solar, and houses a renewable energy kitchen using biogas. Water pumps, solar cookers and a myriad of other human centred technologies are displayed. A jewel for students of permaculture to see. We look forward to the next PDC in Mysore in December.

Appropriate technology, like permaculture, is an umbrella term that covers areas of study as diverse as eco-building to energy and water harvesting or finance. It means different things to different people. In energy hungry Europe, Chris Dews director of Casita Verde and GreenHeart Ibiza, is counting on appropriate technology to provide a high-powered, high-tech future. Indeed, between intelligently designed rocket stove heating systems, a remarkable solar generation system and large water storage system, Chris ensures that Casita Verde, built from recycled and natural materials, stays functional and comfortable in super-dry Ibiza and has more than enough power to charge a small electric car and half a dozen small eco-homes. We look forward to Chris sharing the joys of appropriate technology in the upcoming permaculture design course in late September at Casita Verde, Ibiza

Interestingly, I’ve realized how more and more often, when the word “Permaculture” comes up in a conversation, people are more familiar with it than they used too a few years ago. And that’s exactly how paradigms start shifting, with new vocabularies, new understandings and thereby new realities. New words, new worlds! Here is a short opening of the door to the vast world of Permaculture. There are plenty definitions out there, and here is one more! Permaculture refers to the design system of ecological human habitats and food production systems. Stemming from massive landscape degradation, David Holmgren and Bill Mollison, both Australian ecologists coined the word Permaculture in the mid 1970′s. The word arises from two phrases, referring either to agriculture or culture – permanent agriculture or permanent culture. It is the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems that have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems. It is the harmonious integration of landscape and people providing their food, energy, shelter, and other material and non-material needs in a sustainable way. Permaculture differs from other alternative approaches to agriculture in the sense that it is primarily considered a design system and that it works with a set of ethics. The ethics are Earth Care, People Care and Fair Share making of Permaculture not only a production system but rather a land use and community planning philosophy. It is an approach to living that strives to integrate land use and community buildings, including the microclimate, annual and perennial plants, animals, soils and water into stable productive communities or in a sense “closed ” ecosystems. In Permaculture design, the careful observation of patterns in natural landscapes is emphasized. Through the study of relationships that occur in natural ecosystems, Permaculture design aims at placing elements of agricultural systems and human habitats in specific locations so that useful connections and synergies between components are maximized. Focusing on beneficial associations among elements rather than focusing on each separate element, Permaculture allows for minimizing waste, human labor, and inputs from outside the system such as energy, water, fertilizers and pesticides while at the same time restoring damaged land.

Permaculture design uses a set of principles which D. Holmgren defines as “thinking tools that when used together allow us to creatively redesign our environment and our behavior in a world of less energy and resources”. Here is a diagram I made summarizing Bill Mollison and D. Holmgren Permaculture principles that have become impregnated in many peoples’ cognition resulting in the envisioning and development of harmonious homesteads, ecovillages, transition towns and many other productive living systems.

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